Bike to School Day is almost upon us (April 15th). Like last year, I will lead a bike bus to school. I see more kids being taken to school by bike than ever these days, and I know that more will come in the days to come, but it gets me wishing nonetheless.
Other places get that cars and kids don't mix, so they do something about it. In Japan women ride their kids to school in droves (it is illegal to drive a child to Kindergarten there).
In Ontario, Canada they have started a public school where it is against the rules to drive your child to school except in very specific circumstances. The kids either walk, bicycle or take a school bus to stop cars from building up around the school (story via Treadly and Me).
Of course, there is the Dutch paradigm that we all wish we had. This video from David Hembrow shows kids traveling from one town to another to get to school. Now, before we get into the discussion of "we can't do that here! There isn't room" I would just like to say that my stance is "yes we can do this, if we choose to" and I am sticking to it.
Mostly, I just wish people would think about what they can do to get their children out of cars and into the world. There has become such a culture of group think about how dangerous and horrid everything is that we are all believing are own hype. Our children suffer because of our unevaluated fears and paralysis in the face of change.
I wish we would all just get out there and ride our kids to school! You know you can do it. Really, you can.
We have a long way to go here. Bicycles are seen as a toy and not as transport. We live 1.25 miles from an elementary school and less than 2 miles from a middle school yet not one single person walks or rides a bike to school.
ReplyDeleteThere are many houses here with long driveways and parents will actually put their children in the car and drive them down the driveway to the street to catch the school bus. All of this within 1/2 mile of the school.
The mindset is such that when we first moved here my grandson and his friends would ask for a ride to the friends house less than 1400 feet away. Needless to say after my tirade that has never happened again.